Welcome! These forums will be deactivated by the end of this year. The conversation continues in a new morph over on Discord! Please join us there for a more active conversation and the occasional opportunity to ask developers questions directly! Go to the PS+ Discord Server.

Scenario seed: Playing seed-AI forks

8 posts / 0 new

Last post

Fri, 2014-07-25 10:59

hyades

Scenario seed: Playing seed-AI forks

Along the lines of the AGI to Seed AI thread: I'd like to build a one-shot scenario around the following idea (maybe this has been done before?): [this is very much work in progress, but I thought I'd run it by the forums before I continue fleshing it out more.] The PCs are all delta forks of a seed AI - a fact that has been carefully withheld from them by their creators - maybe stemming from some pre-fall research project. During the Fall though, they escaped Earth like everyone else, while the project was abandoned and the people who knew about it died, vanished or went to cold storage. Now I came up with two variants to make this setup into a scenario. First variant: Another fork (maybe beta?) of the original seed-AI (irrationally?) believes that it can become more powerful by merging with other forks, representing parts of the original seed-AI code it doesn't possess. Therefore it starts hunting down all remaining forks from the project. Second (more hefty) variant: The project was experimenting with "compartmentalizing" a seed-AI or maybe even turning it into some sort of mesh-like infrastructure consisting of a shitload of forks. Either a somehow "incomplete" version of the original seed-AI or a cult-like group of interconnected forks now strives toward "becoming whole again" by reintegrating all of the original code they can find. And maybe the PCs are all that's missing for them to become a real X-risk. What I like about the whole concept is that it makes the scenario very personal for the PCs. What do you think of this idea? Is it workable? Flawed logic? Maybe too cliché? What needs to be changed?

—

[...] vidi ingentis portenta ruinae, vidi hominum divumque metus hilaremque Megaeram et Lachesin putri vacuantem saecula penso. Stat. Theb. 3, 640-42.

Fri, 2014-07-25 17:54

Scottbert

I like it!

I like it! If you want to get really technical -- the data or partial programming carried in each of the PCs for making the AI whole is probably dormant and inactive, hidden in their egos like mental junk DNA. This does, however, offer a possible additional gimmick/plot twist: What if the AI does something to activate the dormant code in the PCs? Do they connect with eachother in limited fashion? Gain weird mental tricks like tier I psi sleights? Other weird stuff? Something to consider if you think it'd be cool.

Sun, 2014-07-27 18:54

hyades

Throwing PSI Powers into the

Throwing PSI Powers into the mix sounds like a cool idea. I'll have to reread the chapter on those and see what I can use. Thanks scottbert.

—

[...] vidi ingentis portenta ruinae, vidi hominum divumque metus hilaremque Megaeram et Lachesin putri vacuantem saecula penso. Stat. Theb. 3, 640-42.

Sun, 2014-07-27 19:10

DrewDavis

I think you could expand the

I think you could expand the second idea into a full blown campaign. You'd want to make the characters perfectly normal work-a-day transhumans who suddenly find themselves the targets of a mysterious group. As the PCs find each other and investigate their hunters, other intelligence groups notice and start digging into why the PCs are a target. Eventually they encounter something that activates Scottbert's code and they develop PSI they can only use as a group. Of course, at that point they start to loose their own individuality...

Thu, 2014-12-04 20:03

Bursting Eagern... Bursting Eagerness Soul's picture

Sorry if this is considered a

Sorry if this is considered a necro, but I find this idea very interesting. In line with the Group PSI, maybe a version of the Parallel Processing mod would be a cool plot point.

—

In other words, firing off a laser with a sufficient TWR for the recoil to be noticeable would require a post-miracle-tech laser weighing less than a disposable plastic spoon and powerful enough to shoot down Death Stars? -- ShadowDragon8685

Sun, 2014-12-07 20:03

hyades

totes appreciated as I'm

totes appreciated as I'm still working on this :-) Reading Gatecrashing again I already figured that I could present my meshed-hivemind project as some kind of horrifying pre-fall predecessor to what the (Neo-)Synergists are doing. But the Parallel Processor mod is a cool piece of actual gaming rules to build upon, so thanks for that.

—

[...] vidi ingentis portenta ruinae, vidi hominum divumque metus hilaremque Megaeram et Lachesin putri vacuantem saecula penso. Stat. Theb. 3, 640-42.

Wed, 2014-12-10 01:07

kindalas

An Idea for this would be to

An Idea for this would be to have the forks be expressions of some skill. So each of the forks would have one skill at 90 (or more) and complementary skills at 70. But their would be weird skill gaps because these aren't people in the conventional sense. Also if the source of the forks is an infected TITAN then I'd definitely consider PSI. But if you have un-infected TITANS or Prometheans. Then I would avoid it entirely. I'd also consider giving the forks a strong penalty (or bonus) to resisting the exsurgent viruses that are out there depending on how long the Seed AI has had to adapt. Another thing to consider is giving bonuses for having extra processing power. Current Egos and AGIs and AIs when operating on a server fill to the point where they are running at capacity. They don't try and fill an entire mesh ecosystem. But a Seed AI would have no such limits. I'd consider giving an extra +5 to one Aptitude for every extra ego slot available in a morph or server. To a limit of +5 to each Aptitude. Anything more then that requires a server and servers are specifically designed to be difficult for Seed AIs to use. Those safe guards can be removed from servers. But by then your forks would be in uncharted territory. I'd also give them the edited memories trait and the modifed behaviour trait a couple of times based on the Fork's intended role. I hope this helps. Kindalas

—

I am a Moderator of this Forum [color=red]My mod voice is red.[/color] The Eclipse Phase Character sheet is downloadable here: [url=http://sites.google.com/site/eclipsephases/home/cabinet] Get it here![/url]

Fri, 2014-12-12 21:53

Bursting Eagern... Bursting Eagerness Soul's picture

Exalted Incoming...

kindalas wrote:
An Idea for this would be to have the forks be expressions of some skill. So each of the forks would have one skill at 90 (or more) and complementary skills at 70. But their would be weird skill gaps because these aren't people in the conventional sense.

Kind of like a Second or Third Circle Demon in Exalted? A lesser, but specialized, part of a greater whole. ... I really want to play one of these characters now.

kindalas wrote:
Another thing to consider is giving bonuses for having extra processing power. Current Egos and AGIs and AIs when operating on a server fill to the point where they are running at capacity. They don't try and fill an entire mesh ecosystem. But a Seed AI would have no such limits. I'd consider giving an extra +5 to one Aptitude for every extra ego slot available in a morph or server. To a limit of +5 to each Aptitude. Anything more then that requires a server and servers are specifically designed to be difficult for Seed AIs to use. Those safe guards can be removed from servers. But by then your forks would be in uncharted territory. I'd also give them the edited memories trait and the modifed behaviour trait a couple of times based on the Fork's intended role. I hope this helps. Kindalas

Damn. Never let one of these near a Fenris...

—